HE Funding £61 million behind England (Kirsty Williams AM )

Cymraeg
English

Kirsty Williams AM <info@kirstywilliams.org.uk>

HE Funding £61 million behind England

April 21, 2008 3:00 PM

A staggering HEFCW report has today revealed that the Higher Education funding gap between England and Wales has widened by a massive 50%. In just one year the investment gap has increased from an alarming £40million in 2004/05 to HEFCW's latest statistics placing the gap at a whopping £61 million for 2005/06.

Kirsty Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education said: "While the Plaid Labour Government play around with free laptops and free car parking our Higher Education institutions and the future of our knowledge-based economy is being hung out to dry.

"China, with its stringent education system and work ethic, is fast showing that 'knowledge' is a key asset in setting the course for sturdy and vigorous economic development. The importance of the 'knowledge economy' is only set to grow, so why is the Plaid-Labour Government failing to invest in its future?

"The Minister has been sitting on this information since last Autumn and her continued denial of any gap simply adds insult to injury particularly when it is estimated that the gap is continuing its upward trend. HEFCW are predicting that the gap will get even bigger next year.

"The increasing funding gap is making it harder and harder for Wales to compete with England in the quality of education delivery. This is nothing to do with the high quality of our institutions, lecturers, researchers and students but simply because our Government is not investing in the sector.

"In order for our emerging knowledge-based economy to further develop we need proper investment in people - and that means we need to invest in our HE sector. The race to attract research staff is ever harder and requires funding of modern facilities and equipment. In turn without research staff it is difficult to compete against universities in England and to bid for the tens of millions of pounds of research funding available from European and UK bodies that is otherwise lost to Wales and its economy.

"The Plaid-Labour Government must act to narrow this £61 million gap by committing more funding to the HE sector. Simply sitting back and letting the gap widen is letting Wales down."

Notes:

HEFCW: Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.

HEFCW Funding Gap Report is available on their website: http://www.hefcw.ac.uk/